


Halloween Month at the Mystery Shack

by DeckofDragons



Series: Spooky Month 2019 Challenge [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adult Dipper Pines and Mabel Pines, Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Halloween 2019, Halloween Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 22:09:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20842814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Dipper and Mabel's first real Halloween at Gravity Falls.





	Halloween Month at the Mystery Shack

**Author's Note:**

> Me, writing a Gravity Falls fic in the year 2019? It's more likely than you think!
> 
> I'm challenging myself to write and draw as much Halloween/spooky themed things as possible in October. I chose to write for Gravity Falls again because it goes well with Halloween. I mean canonically they have Summerween so Halloween must be a big deal, making it good fodder for at least one Halloween fic.
> 
> Happy Spooky Month!

Dipper sat at his desk, doing something that was probably boring and no fun at all. He didn’t seem to have heard her stealthy approach up the stairs and into their shared room, perfect. With a grin, she crept closer, careful not to step on the set of creaky floorboards in the middle of the room that had given away many attempts at a prank in the past, until she stood right behind him.

“Boo!” She clapped her hands onto his shoulders.

He jumped up with a mangled yelp, almost falling out of his chair. He snapped his head around. The shock on his face instantly melted into an annoyed frown. “Really Mabel? Do you have to?”

“Yes, I _had_ to.” He had been too perfect of a target for her _not_ to. “If you didn’t want me sneaking up on you when you were doing whatever it is you do at that desk, you’d be more vigilant.”

“I like facing the window though.” He gestured towards the attic window that looked out over the woods surrounding the Mystery Shack. It _was_ a nice view but it was another distraction, making it far too easy to sneak up on him and scare him. “But what do you want anyway?” He brushed himself off as he stood up to face her. “I know there’s no way you came up here just to scare me.”

Mabel might’ve taken offense to that – she one hundred percent _would_ come up here for the sole purpose of scaring him – if she weren’t so excited about what she _had_ come up here for. “I want to wish you a Happy Halloween!”

“Uh… it’s October 1st, Halloween’s on the 31st.”

“It’s Halloween month, silly. And it’s our first one here in Gravity Falls.” They were taking a gap year before starting college and naturally they’d chosen to spend it at the Mystery Shack. “Aren’t you excited?”

“Well uh… I guess so. Halloween’s a pretty big deal here there should be lots of cool stuff.”

“Exactly,” Mabel interrupted before he could say more and suggest it was still too early to be _too_ excited or that they were too old to be _that_ excited about Halloween. “Gruncle Stan needs our help putting up decorations and then we need to start looking into what we’re going to go as this year.” Costumes were hard because they always went with a twin thing which meant they had to work to figure out something that they’d both be happy with, a process that had gotten more difficult as they’d gotten older. “There’s supposedly a _huge_ Halloween party at the town hall every year and Gruncle Stan throws one here at the Mystery Shack too.” When he’d told her about it this morning, he’d said it was because it brought good business, some of the best he got year-round, but that didn’t matter, it was still a Halloween party and therefore something she was excited for. “We _need_ to be ready for it.”

Dipper sighed and gave her a fond headshake. “Okay, all right, it’s important. Let’s go help with the decorations then. While we do that, we can start to discuss what we want to dress up as.”

Even with all of them working on it together, it took several hours – with a lunch break in the middle – to get the Mystery Shack completely decked out for Halloween. Decorative ghosts and spiders hung down from the ceiling inside along with fake cobwebs and a spooky looking mirror in the back. At the front of the shop was a fake skeleton whose eyes lit up and jaw opened to let out a loud maniacal laugh when it sensed movement near it, meant to spook people passing by. Something similar was at the checkout counter only this one was a zombie and it moaned and growled instead of laughed as it arms raised.

But outside was were things got really intense. Jack-o’-lantern’s – fake but realistic looking if it were dark or one didn’t scrutinize them too hard because maintaining real ones for the whole month would be too hard as well as more expensive – lined the path leading to the entrance. There was a whole fake graveyard off to one side, multiple graves had fake hands and arms sticking out of the ground at various points of decay. An intimidatingly tall Grim Reaper statue presided over all of it. And of course, there were more decorations on the front of the Shack as well, cob webs, orange and black tinsel, fake cracks on the windows to make them look spooky, and a witch decoration plastered high up as if she’d crash into the Mystery Shack whilst riding on her broom and hit hard enough to get stuck there. Over all, it was the biggest Halloween setup Mabel had ever seen and she _loved_ it.

“It’s _perfect_,” she said as the six of them – Gruncle Stan, Ford, Soos, and Wendy were all there too of course – plus a few passersby who’d paused to admire the display as they put it up, stood and looked at it. “I’m so excited.”

“I’m not,” Wendy said, shifting her weight to one leg with a sigh. “This is the busiest time of year and it _sucks_.”

“Yep, it sure it,” Stan agreed, rubbing his hands together with greed. “But this year, Mabel’s here to help out. Speaking of which, five-minute break everyone and then back to work.”

Mabel had signed up for a temporary job at the Mystery Shack for as long as she and Dipper lived here. Dipper was helping Gruncle Ford with his research stuff, making her feel like she had to do something too and she _liked_ helping out… most of the time. Right now, wasn’t one of those times. She’d had fun putting up the decorations and now wanted to go around town to see how the residents and other stores were getting ready for Halloween. _Real_ Halloween, she’d seen Summerween decorations tons of times, the real deal _had_ to be bigger and better, just like it was here at the Mystery Shack. So…

“Can me and Dipper go out and see what other people are putting up for Halloween?” she asked, putting an arm around Dipper’s shoulders. He’d back her up on this… probably.

Stan opened his mouth to respond but Ford cut him off. “As long as you’re both back before nightfall.”

Before a protest could potentially be voiced by Dipper, Stan, or someone else, Mabel grasped Dipper’s wrist and took off. “Awesome, thanks. See you guys later.”

True to what Mabel had heard, many people were getting ready for Halloween. Some of the places they passed by were already fully decorated others were in the process. But rare was the house that had nothing and nonexistence was the store that wasn’t decorated at least a little. Halloween really was a big deal here, big enough that they celebrated it twice a year and got ready right on October 1st.

“This town is…” Mabel began and Dipper cut in to finish with her, “…the greatest, don’t you think?”

“Yes, it’s pretty cool,” he answered before she could react to what just happened. “Honestly, I think it might be one of the coolest places ever. After college I think I want to come back here and work with Gruncle Ford permanently.”

Mabel was thinking of coming back here after college too. But she didn’t want to think that far in the future right now. “We still need to decide what we want to dress as for Halloween.” They’d discussed it some whilst decorating the Mystery Shack but hadn’t reached anything even approaching an agreement. “It has to be something _really_ good.” This was their last Halloween before they went to college and afterwards got real jobs as real adults so it _had_ to be a good one.

“We’ll figure something and it’ll be a_ great_ Halloween,” Dipper said as if reading her mind and somewhat assuaging her worry that it might _not_ be a good Halloween. “I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I might add a part two to this of them actually at the Mystery Shack Halloween Party. I don't know for sure yet though so I guess we'll see.


End file.
